FiDi hums with development a year after Sandy

Manhattan's Financial District
Manhattan's Financial District

The Financial District, a soggy post-Sandy mess just over a year ago, now hums with activity, from multi-million dollar developments to rising apartment rents.

Silverstein Properties’ 4 World Trade Center office tower had a ribbon cutting last week, 1 World Trade Center is slated to open soon and 75 Wall has nabbed north of $17 million in contracts so far this year.

“FiDi to us is booming right now,” Rodrigo Nino, CEO of Prodigy Network, which is building an extended stay hotel called AKA Wall Street for $110 million, told the New York Post. “You see the emergence of the World Trade Center site … over 350 companies from Midtown moved downtown. The Fulton Center will be the city’s third-largest train station.”

The average price per square foot for a condo in the nabe is only $1,088, but the price per square foot rose 146 percent in the area since 2000 — a rapid upshot compared to the rest of Manhattan’s 124 percent jump, according to data from appraisal firm Miller Samuel cited by the Post.

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Retail rents have similarly shot skyward, rising 69 percent over the last six months as of November versus the same period in 2012.

Some buyers still regard the area with caution however, remembering the recently-flooded streets and struggling buildings that had the neighborhood fighting to hang on.

“I would have been remiss not to consider that,” Aishlinn O’Callaghan, who purchased a studio with a home office at 75 Wall, told the Post. But “I thought of it as a good opportunity to get in before prices got really high. In 75 Wall alone, prices have gone up since I bought.” [NYP]Julie Strickland